Solstice
We invite you to our newest exhibition “Solstice” by Katherine Blakeslee. This exhibit brings together watercolor landscapes that reflect the artist’s lifelong fascination with the ways people relate to the natural world. Working primarily in watercolor, the artist uses delicate washes, transparent layers, and color to capture details and the feelings evoked by nature.
Rather than simply depicting scenery, the artist treats each work as a conversation between human presence and the environment. Soft edges are juxtaposed with crisp borders, resulting in a balance between realism and intuition creating images that feel both familiar and dreamlike.
Central to this exhibit is the idea that nature is not separate from us, but a mirror in we recognize our own inner landscapes. Through these paintings, the artist invites the us to consider our own connection to the natural world, and how it restores, inspires, and shapes us. This exhibit offers us a moment of calm in our fast-moving world, reminding us of the profound, timeless relationship between people and place.
From the Artist:
“December is a time for reflection, transition, and anticipation of new beginnings”
Weather changes with the seasons remind us of our shifting surroundings. Light mysteriously changes everything, sometimes in minutes, seconds or slowly over a long day or a season. I have always been fascinated by how water, land and sky interact with each other. Be it bright, hazy, or hidden by a storm the horizon -- that magical line between the sky and land or sea continues to captivate me. The horizon links, rather than divides, inviting us to dream about the other side.
After a long career in international development and human rights, I began to paint and fell in love with watercolor for its ability to capture mysterious and sometimes other-worldly moods. The challenge of this medium lies in shared creativity among the artist, the water, and the paint, with none having complete control. Water and pigments flow across the paper on their own, leaving the viewer to watch and wonder.
Paintings in this exhibit may be serene or chaotic, still or moving. Immovable mountains may be juxtaposed with birds in flight and the passage of clouds. Pale blue and rust colors punctuated by dark and deep marks reflect winter.
Nature is a constant reminder of how our interactions with the world around us reflect the past and present, and foreshadow the future, a recognition I hope to inspire in the viewer. The beauty of nature can be destroyed by epidemics, earthquakes, floods, storms, fires, and human conflict. Thus, we are reminded of how little control we often have over our surroundings and that we are stewards not owners of the earth.
